This week WIN Wednesdays woman is Christina A. Brodbeck. Christina is the co-founder of theicebreak, an app for couples to make the most out of their relationships. Prior to theicebreak, Christina was a founding team member at YouTube and the company’s first UI Designer. She later went on to lead UI for YouTube Mobile. She is an active angel investor and mentor at various places like 500 Startups and The Designer Fund. Follow Christina and theicebreak on Twitter. Why do you think there aren’t more women angels/investors? What do you think can be done to change that? Women need to take it upon themselves to become more comfortable with risk. Investing is a risky business, and there are no guarantees you’ll make …

This is a post-iOS6 update to a previous guest post by Naoki Shibata, co-founder of SearchMan.com, part of our 2nd accelerator batch. SearchMan is SEO for Apps, helping developers with App Store Search tracking and keyword optimization. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter for more content. Problem: Why do developers seem to hate iOS6 App Store Search? In iOS5, you see 5 apps in search results and can get to #25 with one flick of the finger in a second. With iOS6 search, you see only 1 app per page so it’s really difficult for a user to discover which cool apps are in the top 100. Solution: If you assume that web user behavior will transfer to mobile, then when it …

This story is by Oguz Serdar, co-founder of Limk. This story is on how he met his fellow co-founder Ozer Dolekoglu. Limk aims to cut through web noise intelligently by checking the social graph of every single user and offer them related deals or goodies. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Ozer Dolekoglu, Product Guy (left) and Oguz Serdar, Chief Hustler (right) In early 2009, I was trying to learn more about the tech scene of Adana (a southern city in Turkey that I moved for my civil engineering major). After few months of non-stop searching for individuals by attending related university clubs, participating online communities, etc., I was getting nervous whether I’d find any new people who are into …

This week’s WIN Wednesday Woman is Linda Benardi. Linda is the author of ProVoke, a book that stirs discussion on the critical importance of global disruption. She also lectures at The University of Washington Bothell MBA program and serves as the CEO ofStraTerra Partners, a technology strategy consulting firm. Linda also carries the roles of angel investor, board member, and advisor in a number of tech companies as well as not-for-profits globally. Previously, she founded and ran a company called ConnecTerra Inc, a software company in the RFID arena that was acquired in 2005. Follow her on Twitter here.

What is 500 Startups? We’re a hybrid between an accelerator and seed fund. We run our accelerator program twice a year offering funding, hands on programming, office hours, mentorship, bootcamps, and the tools needed to blow up your startup. Additionally, we invest in startups outside of our accelerator, host series of conferences and events such as unSEXY, Inbox Love, Geeks on a Plane, and more. You can learn more about us through this video and this video. What kind of investments does 500 Startups make? We make seed stage investments ranging from $25K to $250K (roughly). We invest in companies via the following: – Participating in companies’ seed rounds – Investing in companies that go through our accelerator program. How …

This story is by Anna Talerico, co-founder of LiveBall. Her story is on how she met her fellow co-founders Justin Talerico and Scott Brinker. Liveball is a cloud-based platform used by hundreds of global brands to create and optimize post-click web experiences. They also offer a wide-range of strategic services for companies who need help in the planning, execution and optimization of their post-click programs. Follow LiveBall onTwitter and Facebook. Justin, CEO (left), Scott President and CTO (middle), with Anna, EVP (right). I love my co-founders! Justin, Scott and I are ‘married’ to our company—bound together in holy entrepreneurship (Justin and I also happen to be bound together in holy matrimony too). We joined forces about …

EXTRA! EXTRA! 500 Startups is looking for MONSTERS, from all corners of the planet! Are you the biggest fish in your small pond? Have you already raised tons of cash? Are you ready to step it up to the next level and play in the big leagues? If so, then 500 wants YOU to come to the valley and CRUSH IT. Join the Fall 2012 batch of the 500 Accelerator Program! How, you ask? Well, today we’re doing something we’ve never done before. An open application process. (Pause for reaction) Starting today through Sunday September 23, you can submit your application for the 500 Accelerator here: http://angel.co/500startups We’ve already chosen a small number of scary startups …

Elizabeth Yin tells us how she met Jennifer Chin and started LaunchBit, an ad network for email. It helps advertisers reach their target demographics through email channels, and helps email publishers monetize their emails. They were part of our 2nd accelerator batch. Follow LaunchBit on Twitter and Facebook. Winning a competition senior year I met Jennifer the day before 6th grade. We were eating popsicles quietly, as all our other classmates chatted about. I was nervous about whether I’d make any new friends at my new school, but from that day on, Jennifer and I were inseparable. Jennifer loved solving challenging problems, so we became friends quickly. In 6th grade, she read some book on how to do complex square roots …

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